by Wela on 27 February 2009 23:18
Once again I was in a crazy busy schedule in the last couple of weeks and didn't even notice my domain is expired. Thanks for few friends for reminding. Site was Off line for 24 hours.
Went and renewed the domain for 5 years.
by Wela on 24 February 2009 03:47
Are you working in a web company as a developer or a designer. If you are ... think for a second on what you are developing/designing ... whether you put your attention to web standards and final touches.
A website for a customer is a face to his company or in this case a face to my project. As the supplier if you screw things up at the end it's going to look really bad on the customer. unfortunately most companies don't understand about web standards and importance of getting the site done according to the web standards. and the development house makes an advantage . However if the customer is well knowledgeable on the web standards, its going to be hell for the supplier because he wont be able to play their bullshit game anymore.
Couple of weeks ago I hired a vendor to develop a website for a project which I'm planning to launch here @ Microsoft. I decided to select this vendor due their profile, quality of work and recommendations. Personally I too was happy with their quality. I wont mention their name here beause this is not to point any fingers at them. I have already quality of the stuff delivered seemed amazingly crap.
- Absolutely no web standards were followed. Halfway through I had to give them a lecture on the web standards hoping they will get a feel of the quality I'm expecting. but very dissapointly there were no improvement ... or very little improvements.
- Another thing is trying to do things in the same old way we used to do 5-6 years ago. Developers who worked on this project has absolutely no clue about the enhancement in ASP.NET during last 5 years. Initially I didn’t understand the reason for the delays because as i see some were very simple things to be implemented. When I looked at the source code all became very clear.
- Consistency of pages with the rest of the pages ... I don't even want to talk about. Imagine you having different pages in your site in different styles … May be it is ok to have the promotional website for HELL in such a way.
- Navigation adds several extra clicks to reach a page. Scenes of usability is absolutely ZERO!
But after couple of rounds of discussions they managed to get the functionality of the site working with only few hiccups. Which is fine as it is a project and there is always room to do bug fixes. But what good of a functionality which is not following the standards and which is not user friendly.
So If you are working in a web development house as a developer or a designer and you have no clue about the web standards and best practices go and learn those. If you don’t feel like learning i think it’s better that you quit.
by Wela on 15 February 2009 21:51
"Thrive" is a newly launched Microsoft initiative for IT Professionals. You can find information related to your IT career development, technical skills, and alignment with business. Also, check out the videos on virtulization and desktop optimization.
by Wela on 8 February 2009 00:49
The Azure™ Services Platform (Azure) is an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions offering the best of online and on-premises.
Azure reduces the need for up-front technology purchases, and it enables developers to quickly and easily create applications running in the cloud by using their existing skills with the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and the Microsoft .NET Framework. In addition to managed code languages supported by .NET, Azure will support more programming languages and development environments in the near future. Azure simplifies maintaining and operating applications by providing on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web and connected applications. Infrastructure management is automated with a platform that is designed for high availability and dynamic scaling to match usage needs with the option of a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Azure provides an open, standards-based and interoperable environment with support for multiple internet protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, and XML.
Microsoft also offers cloud applications ready for consumption by customers such as Windows Live™, Microsoft Dynamics™, and other Microsoft Online Services for business such as Microsoft Exchange Online and SharePoint® Online. The Azure Services Platform lets developers provide their own unique customer offerings by offering the foundational components of compute, storage, and building block services to author and compose applications in the cloud.
Read the full article @ http://www.microsoft.com/azure/whatisazure.mspx
by Wela on 5 February 2009 02:16
"Oslo" is the code name for the Microsoft's next generation application development platform. The goal of "Oslo" is to provide a 10x productivity gain across the application lifecycle (design, development, and management). "Oslo" leverages domain-specific models, languages and tools to achieve this goal.
The SDK contains documentation, samples, copies of the “Oslo” models written in "M", and tools designed to help you write your own models in "M", including the code name “Intellipad” tool for code name “Oslo”.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f2f4544c-626c-44a3-8866-b2a9fe078956&displaylang=en